New Bihormonal Artificial Pancreas Shows Promise in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

Teenagers with Type 1 diabetes face unique challenges managing their condition. Studies show that adolescents have the poorest blood sugar control of any age group with Type 1 diabetes. This matters because good control during the teenage years helps reduce the risk of serious complications later in life.

Managing Type 1 diabetes requires constant decision-making: calculating carbohydrates, timing insulin doses, and responding to blood sugar changes. For busy adolescents, this burden can feel overwhelming, and it often leads to inconsistent management and higher blood sugar levels.

A fully closed-loop or 'artificial pancreas' system automatically monitors blood sugar and delivers insulin without requiring the user to make decisions or enter information. The Inreda AP system tested in this study goes further by delivering both insulin and glucagon—two hormones that work together to keep blood sugar balanced. Insulin lowers high blood sugar, while glucagon raises low blood sugar.

Because the system requires no user input, it may reduce the daily burden of diabetes management, especially for adolescents who struggle with consistent self-care.

Researchers in this single-center study enrolled 20 adolescents aged 12–18 years with Type 1 diabetes. Each participant used the bihormonal closed-loop system for two weeks, then returned to their usual diabetes treatment for two weeks. This design allowed researchers to compare each person's results with and without the system.

During the closed-loop period, adolescents spent significantly more time with blood sugar in the target range (74.9%) compared to their usual treatment (61.3%). They also experienced fewer episodes of high blood sugar and fewer low blood sugar events. No safety concerns were observed over the short study period.

While these results are encouraging, important limitations remain. The study included only 15 participants whose data could be analyzed and lasted just two weeks. To truly understand whether the system works well for adolescents over time, researchers need to conduct longer trials with larger groups of teenagers.

The researchers emphasize that their findings provide 'preliminary evidence' and call for future studies to evaluate long-term safety and effectiveness. If larger trials confirm these benefits, bihormonal closed-loop systems could become an important tool for improving diabetes management in adolescents.

Source: Pediatric diabetes. Evidence type: PubMed indexed literature. Type1Cure is an information and intelligence hub, not a medical advice service. This article summarizes published research and does not provide diagnosis, treatment, or personal medical guidance. Always talk to your own care team before changing anything about your Type 1 diabetes management.